Turtle Pond —
When I first walked by this turtle, I didn’t even notice him. He looked like a weird bump on the retaining wall, and wasn’t moving.
Once I noticed him, I first thought he was dead (and some shots that in retrospect would have been cool were left untaken - I felt uncomfortable taking photos of a creature I thought to be deceased). For example, his hind end/tail was drooping down off the back of the wall in a really awkward way… that actually contributed to my impression of an ex-turtle.
But thankfully this big fella turned out to be very much alive, and after moving his head around slowly, decided he didn’t appreciate the papparazzi and slowly made his way off the retaining wall and back to the pond (shedding his lovely coat of slime in the process, too).
The Arboretum calls this pond the “Turtle Pond.” I’d always thought it was because of the many box turtles I’ve seen there before… Now I know there’s much bigger turtles around!